[PPG] GROUP 7 GA GOZ - MSA 1 - THE STATE HAS FAILED

natsinahgfA MSA 1 Group 7, 12-Gonzalez 06 Anna Bahia 14 Clodualdo de Jesus 29 Zachary Ortiz 34 Gianna Santiago 35 Daniel Santos

Afghanistan is located in Central Asia with Iran to the west and Pakistan to the East. The state is a landlocked mountainous country and is also known for its tall, ominous mountains and dry deserts that cover most of the landscape of Afghanistan.

The current leaders who govern over Afghanistan are the Taliban, also known as the

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Taliban is a political faction that upholds Islamic principles,

incorporating

religion into their

rules

and

regulations for the state. The cabinet consists of men and its head of command is Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Afghanistan

Akhundzada

Commander of the Faithful

INTERIM GOVERNMENT

Mullah Abdul

Mawlawi Abdul

Ghani Baradar

Salam Hanafi

Deputy Prime Minister

Deputy Prime Minister

Mullah Hassan Akhund

Prime Minister

MINISTRIES

Mawlawi Muhammad

Mawlawi Amir Khan

Yaqoob Mujahid

Muttaqi

Defence

Foreign Affairs

Mawlawi Sirajuddin

Mullah Hidayatullah

Haqqani

Badri

Interior

Finance

Mawlawi Abdul

Mullah Khairullah

Hakim Sharae

Khairkhwa

Justice

Information

sredaeL yeK

Mawlawi Hibatullah

Recent events

0202

The current events in that country do not only revolve around battling the pandemic.

In 2020, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) revealed that the Taliban were responsible for 45% attacks that resulted in its citizens' deaths and injuries.

With the Taliban as the head of the state, multiple

events

occurred

wherein

the

1202

Afghan government itself was in charge of killing and injuring its constituents and civilians

through

mortar

attacks

and

airstrikes. On the 29th of June, the country’s army fired three mortar rounds that landed on a livestock market. The rounds have caused at least 19 civilians to be killed, and 31 injured.

As of October 15, the state’s current statistics of the COVID-19 virus are

40, 026

COVID-19 cases

1, 500

deaths

115, 968

COVID-19 tests conducted

Afghanistan was also affected by the global viral. It has led to the misuse of funds and issues in different sectors of its state.

Afghanistan’s health care system had a lack of medical supplies, health care workers, and room capacity to monitor and treat the cases. Discrimination was still prevalent; people with disabilities, women, and girls are given a lack of access to adequate health care and social services. The pandemic has also led to the country putting its education system to a halt. Almost 10 million students were out of school from the month of March to the early weeks of September.

There was difficulty pursuing online education, for only 14% of the Afghan population only have access to the internet.

Through the pandemic

The start of fragility

The state began to turn fragile when Western countries began aiding

assistance and invading Afghanistan. This has lead to strengthening Western ideologies into the state, proclaiming of independence, power struggles from multiple leaders, and war.

Islamists, people who support Islamic ideals into politics, began to form groups to combat against the USSR as well as to create order once the Soviets have left. One example of an Islamist group that was made was the Taliban. The group was formed after the Afghan War to restore order for the government during its time was not fulfilling its role outside of the capital (Kabul).

The country started their descent because of the Taliban. The group's reign on the country for multiple years has led to violations of human rights, violence on civilians, struggles with international relations, and oppression towards the constituents.

ECONOMICALLY With the Taliban holding the country under their control, the Afghan economy plummeted. Prior to the takeover, the Afghan economy was not exactly stable. The Afghan economy was heavily dependent on foreign aid, with foreign aid accounting for an estimated 40 USD of their GDP. The nations that support Afghanistan through foreign aid did not support the Taliban and because of this, they stopped their support for the Afghan economy. With the fact that the Taliban is considered by many to be a terrorist organization, international organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF have stopped financially supporting the state.

Prior to the Taliban takeover, the state of Afghanistan, more specifically their central bank, the DAB, did have foreign reserves that amounted to an estimated 9 billion USD. This asset, however, is inaccessible to the Taliban, the organization that is currently governing the state of Afghanistan. The US states that any of the assets that were from the state of Afghanistan would not be accessible by the current governing body, the Taliban. Because of this, the Taliban, the current governing body, does not have any means of producing meaningful revenue for the country, especially since the Afghan citizens are flocking to other nations to avoid being subjugated by the Taliban.

With no market stability, market population, government stability, or any investment opportunities, businesses have stopped operations within the territory of the country. By all measures, the Afghan economy has collapsed and the governing body hasn't done any meaningful actions that can help bring the economy up from the wrecks that it is in.

Fall

of Afghanistan

POLITICALLY The political collapse of the Afghanistan government had a lot to do with the decision of the US to leave the state. With the reliance of the government on the US for maintaining stability in the state, the Taliban was able to topple the current government once the US left the nation to its own devices. The collapse was also exacerbated by the fact that most of the members of the government, including President Ashraf Ghani, left the country without offering any resistance against the Taliban takeover. One of the defining attributes of a collapsed state is the government's lack of ability to meet its most basic functions like maintaining law and order as well as orchestrating foreign trade. With armed warlords now in control of the government, the majority of these responsibilities are not met as these people are simply ill-equipped to perform the duties of a government. The government of a state must also have legitimacy or it must receive recognition from other nations. With a major superpower in the US opposing the regime of the Taliban, many smaller nations also follow in their footsteps in opposing the Taliban-led state. This means that the governing body, the government which is composed of armed Taliban officials, is simply not recognized as a legitimate

YLLAICOS

government by many other sovereign nations.

Afghanistan has not always been a socially successful country given its history.

The USSR had a lot of influence on Afghanistan, further pushing its Communist ideologies to the other government. Once the USSR invaded the state, the Islamists, who were funded by the US, fought against them. The event has led the

country to become primarily occupied by the Taliban. The Taliban enforced a harsh form of legal code derived from their religion: punishing women for not wearing a burka, prohibiting certain media, committing many attacks against

schools, hospitals, public facilities, and controlling a profitable drug market to fund their activities. The country is currently being governed once more by the Taliban.

The fall of the state is because of its heavy influence and incorporation of religion (Islam) to its method of governance, especially after the invasion of the USSR.

The effects of failure % 15 10 5 0

-1.9%

GDP Growth Rate in the year 2020

47.3%

lives below the national poverty line, 2020

In the

economy

11.7%

unemployment rate, 2020

In politics

Other sovereign nations do not consider Afghanistan as a legitimate state,

causing a decline in foreign exchange, trade, and financial aid. Once the Taliban took over, multiple state governments and organizations such as the U.S., European Union, Germany, Finland, World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund withdrew or paused from funding the country (PBS, 2021).

In human rights

Over the course of the Taliban's governance, there have been multiple human

rights violations.

In education, there is a great lack of access to this basic right. According to Human Rights Watch (2017), 3.5 million children are out of school, 85% are girls 37% of adolescent girls are literate, 66% are boys. Just recently, the Taliban deprived a demographic of pursuing education. In September, they banned girls from taking secondary education, yet it reopened its schools for boys and male teachers (The Guardian, 2021).

In gender equality, women in certain areas of Afghanistan such as Herat mentioned that the Taliban has made them stay indoors due to new guidelines: dress code, a requirement to have a mahram or man with them in public spaces, and removing their access to education and employment (HRW, 2021).

Freedom of speech is also being violated. The Taliban continuously searches

for activists and media outlets who have spoken against or criticized their political entity.

Failure could have been avoided After the slate’s thorough analysis regarding Afghanistan, one way the state could have avoided all of this was the prevention of Western coalition or that Western entities should not have invaded and meddled with Afghanistan.

The country of Afghanistan has had constant changes in its type of government, from it being a Monarchy and moving on to the next. The infiltration of the USSR and Communist influence on the ideals of the country has led to a government issue for Afghanistan. Aside from this, the invasion of the USSR is what caused the creation of Islamist groups. The Taliban would not have been formed if the USSR did not step into the country.

The western coalition has led to Afghanistan being heavily dependent on other nations, with the US being an example of constantly providing financial aid on certain aspects of the country’s sectors. The funding of one certain sector (e.g. military and weapons) may create an imbalance of funding for sectors (less in the public systems), making the Afghan government prioritize the sector with a great abundance of money as compared to others.

With the issues the slate has seen through Afghanistan, the members began to analyze and compare the Philippines and the chosen state. There are commonalities, thus giving them the opportunity to improve the rating of the Philippines through the indicators:

Security Apparatus

Human Rights & Rule of Law Both countries have had events where the government utilizes its power to abuse and inflict violence over its constituents, especially those who are against the principles established by the state. The Taliban has been recording and looking for those criticizing their governance whereas the Philippines and its

stnemevorpmI

current administration have been red-tagging activists and media outlets. The slate believes that through ‘Security Apparatus’ and ‘Human Rights & Rule of Law’, the Philippines would lessen its

abuse of using the constitutional Police power to harm those who have a different opinion against the government. The members of the slate uphold the constitutional right to criticize the government and instead are open to the ideas and suggestions provided by the population to further improve the projects and solve social, economic, and political issues.

Public Services

The access of public services is difficult to distribute, and some are purposely

prevented to deprive the citizens of basic necessities. The members of the slate, if ever elected, will use its power to oversee and analyze the different sectors of the country through the data gathered by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and information from each public and private sector the constituents consume (e.g. healthcare, electricity, water, education). It is through the analysis where the members of the slate will take note of the regions in the country that are deprived of these needs, then formulate a strategic method on how the sectors can provide within those areas.

Human Flight, Brain Drain

One commonality both countries have is the fleeing of citizens to different countries. With the Taliban as the leaders of the state, many Afghans find ways to migrate to a different country to not be harmed by the abuse and oppression that

occurs. The Philippines also has its constituents leave the country, however for a different reason. According to Statista (2019), there were around 2.16 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). The country is notoriously known for its citizens moving to different countries worldwide to pursue better education or occupation within that area. Regarding this, the slate will go over the networks involved: education, housing, all social classes, their monthly income and costs, the current form of government, safety of the country, and job opportunities in the country. These factors will be looked upon to see if there could be improvements in the management and content within.

Improvements

References

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h

https://www.adb.org/countries/afghanistan/economy

Afghanistan: Economy. (2021, September). Asian Development

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PBS. (2021, August 31). A Historical Timeline of Afghanistan.

PBS News Hour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/ politics/asia-jan-june11-timeline-afghanistan Poverty: Afghanistan. (2021, April). Asian Development Bank.

Afghanistan: Girls Struggle for an Education. (2017, October

https://www.adb.org/countries/afghanistan/poverty

17). Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/

Rahimi, H. (2021, October 6). Lessons From Afghanistan’s

2017/10/17/afghanistan-girls-struggle-education# Afghanistan -Overview. (n.d.). World Bank.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/afghanistan/ overview#1 Afghanistan Trade Summary 2019 Data. (2019). World

History: How Not to Fix a Failed State. The Diplomat.

https://thediplomat.com/2021/10/lessons-fromafghanistans-history-how-not-to-fix-a-failed-state/ Reuters. (2021, August 17). How the Taliban engineered “political collapse” of Afghanistan. https://www.reuters

Integrated Trade Solution. https://wits.worldbank.org/

.com/world/asia-pacific/how-taliban-engineered-political-

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collapse-afghanistan-2021-08-17/

Boghani, P. (2021, October 12). ‘Brink of Collapse’: How Frozen

Shah, T., & Abed, F. (2020, June 29). Mortar Strikes Kill at

Assets & Halted Foreign Aid Are Impacting the Afghan

Least 20 at Livestock Auction in Afghanistan. The New

People. PBS FRONTLINE. https://www.pbs.org/

York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/world

wgbh/frontline/article/taliban-takeover-how-

/asia/afghanistan-market-mortar-attack.html

frozen-assets-foreign-aid-impacts-afghanistan/ Education. (n.d.). UNICEF Afghanistan. https://www.unicef.org

/afghanistan/education Gannon, K. (2021, September 8). Taliban form all-male Afghan

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan | Summary & Facts. (n.d.).

Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/ event/Soviet-invasion-of-Afghanistan Statista. (2021, July 13). Number of deployed overseas

government of old guard members. AP NEWS. https://

Filipino workers 2019–2020. https://www.statista.com

apnews.com/article/middle-east-pakistan-afghanistan

/statistics/1243681/philippines-deployed-

-arrests-islamabad-d50b1b490d27d32eb20cc11b77c12c87

overseas-workers/

Garrison, J. (2021, August 23). What happened in Afghanistan:

Taliban | Definition, History, & Facts. (2021, November 3).

What we know about its collapse, Taliban takeover,

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evacuations. USA Today. https://eu.usatoday.com/story/

topic/Taliban

news/politics/2021/08/23/what-happened-afghanistan-howcountry-fell-taliban/8235608002/ GDP growth (annual %) - Afghanistan | Data. (n.d.). The World

Bank. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=AF Graham-Harrison, E. (2021, September 18). Taliban ban girls from secondary education in Afghanistan. The Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/17/taliban -ban-girls-from-secondary-education-in-afghanistan Kirby, J. (2021, September 13). How will the Taliban govern Afghanistan and who is Mullah Mohammad Hassan, the new prime minister? Vox. https://www.vox.com/22665508/taliban-

afghanistan-prime-minister-supreme-leader-hassanhaibatullah Maizland, L. (2021, September 15). The Taliban in Afghanistan.

Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/

backgrounder/taliban-afghanistan Michailof, S. (2000). The Challenge of Reconstructing “Failed” States. Open Edition Journals. https://journals

.openedition.org/factsreports/696 Nagesh, A. (2021, August 25). Afghanistan’s economy in crisis after Taliban take-over. BBC News. https://www.

bbc.com/news/world-asia-58328246 Nagesh, B. A. (2021, August 25). Afghanistan’s economy in crisis after Taliban take-over. BBC News.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58328246

Wilkinson, T. (2021, August 20). What went wrong in Afghanistan with U.S. and the Taliban? Los Angeles Times.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-0819/afghanistan-what-went-wrong

Photo Resources

AFP. (2021, September 2). Image [Photograph]. Afghan Women Hold Placards as They Take Part in a Protest in Herat.

https://static.straitstimes.com.sg/s3fs-public/styles/x_large/public/articles/2021/09/03/af_afghanwomenprotest_0309.jpg? itok=5ysai6rm×tamp=1630626374 AP. (n.d.). Image [Photograph]. https://images.hindustantimes.com/img/2021/08/24/400x225/afghanistan_children_1629771055366 _1629771062663.jpg Ellis, R. & Reuters. (1988, May 15). Image [Photograph]. https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/XxLlwuWokjG_C_RmoRDtMw9bl2I=/ 0x0:3296x1854/960x540/media/img/mt/2021/08/sovietwarinafghanistan/original.jpg Image. (n.d.-a). [Photograph]. https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/b761afb663e443bd97fc1745d64766b7/600.jpeg Image. (n.d.-b). [Photograph]. https://www.mappr.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/image-47.jpeg Image. (n.d.-c). [Photograph]. New Taliban Leader Picture. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/DF5B/production

/_89797175_akhundzda.jpg Image. (n.d.-d). [Photograph]. https://www.escapeartist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/afghanistan-79492_1280-700x430.jpg

Mohammad, N., France-Presse, A., & Getty Images. (n.d.). Image [Photograph]. https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/06/29/world/ 29afghanistan/29afghanistan-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp New York Times. (n.d.). [Photograph]. https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/styles/image_with_caption/public/20120330AFGHAN_STABILITY_1-tob.jpg?itok=gsijdCOG Quilty, A. (2020, August 6). Image [Photograph]. Roya, 55, in the ICU of the Afghan Japan Communicable Diseases Hospital in Kabul. https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/20200807_Kabul_Afg_0039-Edit%20copy.jpg

Group Seven

Background of the state

06 Anna Rosalia Georgina V. Bahia Afghanistan: geographical location and recent events

29 Zachary Daniel S. Ortiz Who leads the state and the start of state fragility

State's failure

14 Clodualdo Andre Martin G. De Jesus Socially 35 Daniel Jay B. Santos Economically and Politically

Effects, how it could have been avoided, the slate's indicators, layout artist 34 Gianna Marika V. Santiago